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It might start with the fingers, but your ears will tell you what makes a great riff
A term coined in the early the 20th century, often played on guitar but also on piano and other instruments, this core, repetitive musical phrase could be even more memorable and catchy than the sung melody. But what riffs have you humming from the last 25 years?
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Things go a little Gaga over Xmas …
Share your music and thoughts about the year. It’s a time of Christmas baubles but also bigger social patterns. While we can see our own reflection in them, are they so controlled by AI that we don't know what other bubbles exist?
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Where would stars be without the dark…?
It’s a vast spectrum of a topic that occupies half of Earth’s rotation, filled with emotions, stories, assocations, and styles. With the recent death of one famous rock figure, what other forms of darkness come to mind in song?
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James Stewart is one of several hanging out at the Bar this week …
Mixing memory and desire, situations, faces, sounds and experiences, it’s a common psychological experience of misplaced memory. But how is it expressed in song, and what others induce that feeling?
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What’s inside the bar this week?
There’s a smoky haze in the Bar this week as dozens of suspicious individuals sit down for a quiet drink, but what are they up to? Are they real or fictional. It’s time to do the sleuth work and find some musical inspiration
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Are you watching? The musical and visual chemistry of Breaking Bad
Sometimes the visual and audible become inextricable. From nostalgia to drama, guest of the week Loud Atlas channels nominations from last week’s TV topic into playlists that are must-sees and required listening
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Charlotte Moorman performing Nam June Paik’s TV Cello, New York, 1971
From themes to incidental music, it’s time to tune in for songs inextricably linked, either because it began life written for a TV programme, or later became indelibly associated with something on the box
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To mark 80 years since that key day, this song topic is not only about those events – the landings, the battles, the individuals, the big stories, but also in a wider sense about the very idea of D-Day, of those moments where it's really do or die, or in some cases do and die, where necessity means you must be decisive and take action
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Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse. But how many crooners are there in this photo?
This week it’s time to to get close to the microphone explore the evolution of crooning in the full range, the style, the technique, the good, bad and ugly, emotive, intimate and excellent, the creative, the cosy, and the cringeworthy, the sensitive and sentimental
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Through the darkness …
Nautical life-saving stories to metaphorical naval-gazing declarations of love, this topic sheds light on different contexts, and across a range of genres, inspired by last week’s nominations, is a bright star in the hands of guest keeper Nicko and his playlists
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Eight? How many pieces do you have?
Precious, rare, valuable, timeless? Monetary or something more intangible? How do you define treasure? This week we celebrate eight years of of Song Bar from a phase from a Robert Louis Stevenson novel and seeking songs on this theme
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Selling out? Who’s up for it?
‘Tis the season to be funny or serious, satirical, cerebral or sensual, simple or complex, abstract or expressive, imaginative and ingenious in suggesting songs for existing or fictional products that could appear in ads that don’t exist
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The classic poisoner’s choice …
Natural or handmade, animal or chemical, fast or slow, murderous or accidental, we inhabit a world of toxins and venoms, but how are they expressed in song? With inspiration here, the more specific and colourful the better but there’s also the mental and metaphorical …
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Honest legacy? Park (bench) your musical heritage here …
How will you leave it, or be left? It’s a profound idea to think of how we’ll be remembered, or forgotten, as material, ethereal and emotional remains, or what others might leave to us. So let’s widen our musical legacy with some more song ideas on this topic …
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Silence, knowledge, and lust - it’s all to be found in the library …
Objects of intellectual interest to persons of desire – it all goes on in the library. Picking from the shelves of last week’s nominations, guest playlister Loud Atlas presents a carefully crafted catalogue that captures the A-Zs of library’s social intrigue
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Peoples Temple leader Reverend Jim Jones in his classic shades at an anti-eviction rally in San Francisco in 1977 with Rev. Cecil Williams
From the divine to the ridiculous, they’ve accompanied others’ lives from birth to marriage and death, stand for moral guidance but sometimes go badly astray, but are fascinatingly charismatic, flawed and human. With inspiration here from real life to film and fiction, how are they captured in song?
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“Actually, I think you’ll find these are not stocks, it’s a pillory …”
Far bigger than embarrassment, shame can be private, deep-seated and complex, covering all sides of society, psychology, religious, private or public life, a many-sided identity that can be corrosive but also controlling, useful but also harmful. How does it show in song?
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Search engines … Monty Python and The Holy Grail. The low-budget classic film was variously funded by among others, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Charisma Records, and possibly Elton John
Love, food, shelter, identity, meaning? Rare vinyl? Most of our existence is about searching for something, but in what ways is this expressed in song lyrics? Here’s some other forms of inspiration and, after all, what is the true holy grail?
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Barbarella tries the musical ‘Excessive Machine’
Expressed in lyrics literally, euphemistically and metaphorically, or in the sheer sound the music or delivery of voice, promises of, or the act itself, few things concentrate the mind and body more. So how to they come together in song? First, enjoy a brief social history of the orgasm by hitting this button …
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Sing out the scales of justice …
It’s time for the musical scales of justice to sing out as we explore songs about trials, short or long, from or about any perspective of those present, accused or accusers, jurors or judges, or even lawyers, as long as as the action is in court
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